Saudi Arabia Inaugurates First Solar Power Plant

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Saudi Arabia inaugurated its first solar power plant on October 1 as it continues to diversify its energy sources. The 500-kilowatt plant, located on Farasan Island, will save the equivalent of transferring 28,000 barrels of diesel fuel to the island annually. The plant was constructed by the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) and Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K., a Japanese energy company partly owned by the Saudi Arabian Oil Company. This is one of the many initiatives led by SEC to introduce clean energy throughout the Kingdom. "Saudi Arabia is committed to building and refining alternative energy solutions," said Saudi Ambassador to the United States Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir. "This program is one large step that will benefit the environment and the Saudi people." The Kingdom is a prime location to harness solar energy because of its year-round sunshine. The sun in Saudi Arabia emits about 7,000 watts of energy per square meter over an average of 12 hours every day. In February 2010, the Saudi government, in coordination with the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, began building the first solar-powered water desalination plant. For more information on Saudi Arabia, please visit www.saudiembassy.net and follow the Embassy on Twitter (@SaudiEmbassyUSA) or on the Embassy YouTube page.

Melvin Wylie

Demand for Water & Wastewater pipe to increase 6% annually through 2014

US demand to increase 6% annually through 2014 US demand for water and wastewater pipe is expected to increase six percent annually to $19 billion in 2014, equivalent to approximately five billion feet. Stimulants include a rebounding residential building construction sector, the growing obsolescence of sewer and drainage systems, and needs to upgrade municipal water systems. Plastic pipe will advance at the fastest pace, reflecting a strong rebound in construction applications as well as opportunities in drain and sewer applications and water transmission. Broadened plastic pipe use will be driven by performance upgrades made possible by resin and processing improvements. Plastic pipe to advance at above-average pace Demand for plastic pipe will advance at an above-average pace through 2014. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe will remain clearly dominant with growth driven by improved joining technologies and resins such as molecularly oriented PVC. Polyethylene pipe will exhibit healthy growth based on opportunities in potable water and corrugated drain and sewer applications. Good growth is also anticipated for crosslinked polyethylene in water distribution applications. Demand for concrete pipe will expand 3.4 percent per year through 2014, driven by drain and storm sewer applications. Growth will be fueled by concrete's excellent crush resistance and longevity, making it ideally suited for demanding large diameter water pipe applications. Opportunities will also be driven by the growing frequency of leaks and ruptures caused by an aging water distribution network. Concrete pipe is primarily used in high pressure, large diameter water distribution trunk lines. Copper pipe's rapid advances will reflect renewed growth in the building construction segment, primarily for distribution pipe, aided by a moderation in prices. Steel and cast iron pipe will also exhibit good growth in areas such as water transmission and drainage. Large municipal market will be steady; construction to exhibit strong rebound Municipal markets dominated water and wastewater pipe applications in 2009 and are expected to exhibit good growth through 2014 in light of financial availability and the obsolescence of many water pipe systems. Building construction markets are expected to rebound significantly through 2014, particularly in the residential segment. Study coverage The new industry study offers US historical demand data (1999, 2004, 2009) plus forecasts in dollars for 2014 and 2019 by material, market and application. Footage data is also included for each material. In addition, the study considers market environment factors, evaluates company market share data and profiles US industry competitors.   To order this report: Water distribution and treatment Industry: Water & Wastewater Pipe Market More Market Research Report

Melvin Wylie

Space Observatory Provides Clues to Creation of Earth's Oceans

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Astronomers have found a new cosmic source for the same kind of water that appeared on Earth billions of years ago and created the oceans. The findings may help explain how Earth's surface ended up covered in water. New measurements from the Herschel Space Observatory show that comet Hartley 2, which comes from the distant Kuiper Belt, contains water with the same chemical signature as Earth's oceans. This remote region of the solar system, some 30 to 50 times as far away as the distance between Earth and the sun, is home to icy, rocky bodies including Pluto, other dwarf planets and innumerable comets. "Our results with Herschel suggest that comets could have played a major role in bringing vast amounts of water to an early Earth," said Dariusz Lis, senior research associate in physics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and co-author of a new paper in the journal Nature, published online Oct. 5. "This finding substantially expands the reservoir of Earth ocean-like water in the solar system to now include icy bodies originating in the Kuiper Belt." Scientists theorize Earth started out hot and dry, so that water critical for life must have been delivered millions of years later by asteroid and comet impacts. Until now, none of the comets previously studied contained water like Earth's. However, Herschel's observations of Hartley 2, the first in-depth look at water in a comet from the Kuiper Belt, paint a different picture. Herschel peered into the comet's coma, or thin, gaseous atmosphere. The coma develops as frozen materials inside a comet vaporize while on approach to the sun. This glowing envelope surrounds the comet's "icy dirtball"-like core and streams behind the object in a characteristic tail. Herschel detected the signature of vaporized water in this coma and, to the surprise of the scientists, Hartley 2 possessed half as much "heavy water" as other comets analyzed to date. In heavy water, one of the two normal hydrogen atoms has been replaced by the heavy hydrogen isotope known as deuterium. The ratio between heavy water and light, or regular, water in Hartley 2 is the same as the water on Earth's surface. The amount of heavy water in a comet is related to the environment where the comet formed. By tracking the path of Hartley 2 as it swoops into Earth's neighborhood in the inner solar system every six and a half years, astronomers know that it comes from the Kuiper Belt. The five comets besides Hartley 2 whose heavy-water-to-regular-water ratios have been obtained all come from an even more distant region in the solar system called the Oort Cloud. This swarm of bodies, 10,000 times farther afield than the Kuiper Belt, is the wellspring for most documented comets. Given the higher ratios of heavy water seen in Oort Cloud comets compared to Earth's oceans, astronomers had concluded that the contribution by comets to Earth's total water volume stood at approximately 10 percent. Asteroids, which are found mostly in a band between Mars and Jupiter but occasionally stray into Earth's vicinity, looked like the major depositors. The new results, however, point to Kuiper Belt comets having performed a previously underappreciated service in bearing water to Earth. How these objects ever came to possess the tell-tale oceanic water is puzzling. Astronomers had expected Kuiper Belt comets to have even more heavy water than Oort Cloud comets because the latter are thought to have formed closer to the sun than those in the Kuiper Belt. Therefore, Oort Cloud bodies should have had less frozen heavy water locked in them prior to their ejection to the fringes as the solar system evolved. "Our study indicates that our understanding of the distribution of the lightest elements and their isotopes, as well as the dynamics of the early solar system, is incomplete," said co-author Geoffrey Blake, professor of planetary science and chemistry at Caltech. "In the early solar system, comets and asteroids must have been moving all over the place, and it appears that some of them crash-landed on our planet and made our oceans." Herschel is a European Space Agency cornerstone mission, with science instruments provided by consortia of European institutes. NASA's Herschel Project Office is based at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which contributed mission-enabling technology for two of Herschel's three science instruments. The NASA Herschel Science Center, part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech in Pasadena, supports the U.S. astronomical community. For NASA's Herschel website, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/herschel For ESA's Herschel website, visit: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel/index.html

Melvin Wylie

Calling All Recyclers! America Recycles Day 2011 Announces Open Registration for Local Events

-- Join the national celebration of American recycling by hosting a local event. Get free resources! --

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3, 2011 -- America Recycles Day, recognized annually on November 15, celebrates the successes of recycling while providing an educational platform that helps raise awareness about the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling – every day – all throughout the year. America Recycles Day is a national initiative of nonprofit Keep America Beautiful, Inc. (KAB). Online registration is now open at http://AmericaRecyclesDay.org for local organizers to schedule events in their communities and gain access to valuable resources such as best practices guides, posters (on recycled paper), banners (made from recycled plastic bottles), pencils (made from recycled newspaper), buttons (made from recycled aluminum), and much more. Access to these collateral materials and/or downloadable resources are available to any organization ranging from state and municipal governments to local "green teams" or scouting troops. Many collateral materials are offered "first-come, first served," so early registrations are highly encouraged. Events can be scheduled any time during the month of November, but should be held as close to November 15th as possible. New opportunities for high profile events are being offered for 2011. For the first time ever, in partnership with KAB, Walmart locations nationwide are inviting local organizers to hold America Recycles Day educational tabletop events at their stores on Saturday, November 12. If you are looking for a high-traffic location for a recycling awareness event, this is a great opportunity. Details on holding events at Walmart stores are available to registrants as part of the organizers' "Go-to Guide." Additionally, KAB has joined forces with the College and University Recycling Coalition to produce new resources and guidelines for hosting America Recycles Day events at NCAA football games and tailgating events in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Game Day Challenge" initiative. More information on this program can be found at AmericaRecyclesDay.org. Many more opportunities are becoming available and will be announced soon, so stay tuned and be sure to bookmark http://AmericaRecyclesDay.org. And be sure to "Like" our Facebook page at http://facebook.com/AmericaRecyclesDay for all the latest. We look forward to seeing the results of your local events! America's leading companies are proud to make America Recycles Day possible. See a full list of our sponsors, partners and supporters at AmericaRecyclesDay.org.

Melvin Wylie

HGTV's Brooks Utley Partners With Plastics Make it Possible

WASHINGTON D.C. - Saving energy at home can be a confusing topic, so Plastics Make it Possible®, an initiative sponsored by the plastics industries of the American Chemistry Council, is partnering with HGTV's Brooks Utley to show that it doesn't take a lot of money, time, or skill to improve energy efficiency– a priority for most American homeowners. According to a recent survey(1) conducted by Kelton Research on behalf of Plastics Make it Possible® that measured homeowner attitudes toward home-energy efficiency, 92 percent of American homeowners feel it's important to make their homes more energy efficient, yet almost half of those surveyed (46 percent) are not taking the necessary steps to increase their home's energy efficiency because they think it's too expensive. "While most homeowners realize the importance of home-energy efficiency, far fewer are aware of the many cost effective ways to make their homes more energy efficient," said Brooks Utley, green building and design expert and star of HGTV shows The $250,000 Challenge and Designed to Sell. "Plastics are an integral part of home building and design today and can play a big role in making homes more energy efficient. I'm thrilled to be working with Plastics Make it Possible® to show homeowners simple steps they can take to lower their energy bills." To explore new innovations in home energy efficiency available to consumers, Brooks Utley and Plastics Make it Possible® are headed to the 2011 Solar Decathlon in Washington D.C. From September 24 through October 2, collegiate teams from across the nation showcase livable homes built using the latest innovations in green building and energy efficiency. "The Solar Decathlon is a great place for Plastics Make it Possible® and Brooks Utley to showcase how plastics can help improve energy efficiency throughout the building and construction industry," said Steve Russell, vice president, Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council. "Plastic building products can help reduce energy expenses and lower maintenance costs, too – we're really glad that Brooks is partnering with us to help consumers save energy." To encourage energy efficiency, Plastics Make it Possible® has launched an online interactive house that highlights ways to save energy using plastics. Visitors can customize a virtual home and share it online for entry into a sweepstakes to win a $250 gift card to a home improvement store. Visit www.plasticsmakeitpossible.com for more information. Consumers can help increase their own home energy efficiency while spending little and without sacrificing style and design. Plastics Make it Possible® offers the following tips:

• Seal it Up: Installing plastic weather stripping around drafty windows and doors helps reduce the loss of warm or cool air throughout the home.
• Swap them Out: Replacing older, inefficient windows with durable, low maintenance vinyl plastic windows can help save on energy costs. More efficient windows help keep hot or cold air where it belongs – whether outside or inside – to reduce heating and cooling costs.
• Insulate: Plastic foam insulation for roofs, walls and foundations helps improve energy efficiency and save on utility bills.

For more information, visit www.plasticsmakeitpossible.com, check out their Facebook page and follow them @plasticpossible on twitter at www.twitter.com/plasticpossible.

Melvin Wylie

22nd Episode of GreenNews4U

Welcome to the 22nd episode of GreenNews4U! We all have a part to play in the eco system. Everything we do affects the environment around us. From logging, strip mining, deforestation, water pollution, population expansion, the list goes on. All these things affect the wildlife and in turn affect the population, that's human population and the wildlife population. We all know capturing the perfect picture can communicate more than words. In this episode I will be talking with Sebastian about wildlife conservation. Sebastian grew up in Munich, Germany and moved to the United States when he was ten years old. His fascination with wildlife began in Europe and only increased once he saw the wilderness that America has to offer. Wildlife became his passion and he studied Behavioral Ecology at the University of California at Santa Cruz to further his knowledge about animals. His current mission is to showcase the beauty and intricacies of nature while highlighting the critical need for more conservation efforts through his images. He loves to photograph and experience the animals he sees and wants to share these stories through his images. This, he hopes, will inspire others to help fight for the conservation of these amazing creatures.

To view his web page and blog please go here and support this mans projects to help bring awareness to endangered species.

Melvin Wylie

UNSEEN TEARS: THE IMPACT OF NATIVE AMERICAN RESIDENTIAL BOARDING SCHOOLS IN WESTERN NEW YORK

UNSEEN TEARS: THE IMPACT OF NATIVE AMERICAN RESIDENTIAL BOARDING SCHOOLS IN WESTERN NEW YORK (30:35) by Ron Douglas from Squeaky Wheel on Vimeo. Produced by Native American Community Services of Erie and Niagara Counties, Inc. Funded by the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo Native American families in Western New York continue to feel the impact of the Thomas Indian School and the Mohawk Institute. Survivors speak of traumatic separation from their families, abuse, and a systematic assault on their language and culture. Western New York Native American communities are presently attempting to heal the wounds and break the cycle inter-generational trauma resulting from the boarding school experience. Unseen Tears documents testimonies of boarding school survivors, their families, and social service providers.  

Melvin Wylie